VISIT 2 & 3

Thank you for all the comments! We appreciate them! It is wonderful to read them and it makes us feel close to home.

We have had an internet breakdown! Here in Dnipro we have to purchase a card with minutes on it and then activate the card and that gives us time on the internet. We bought our first card on Dec. 30 when we arrived here and then after we posted those 4 pictures we ran out of time. Yesterday was a big holiday here so the stores were closed therefore we were unable to purchase more time. Today we are back on track! The internet that we have here is dial up so the waits are longer and I don’t think that we will be Skyping anyone while we live here.
Now to more important things – Kallie! We have had two more visits and she is fabulous! She really isn’t hesitant to come with us, although it takes her a few moments to warm up to us. We have quickly realized that she enjoys holding on to our finger and walk up and down the hallways. Today she fell and gently bonked her head, there were no tears she just got up and kept on truckin! What a trooper! We are glad that she is tough since she has an older brother that sometimes isn’t so gentle. Kallie really enjoys the snacks we bring her. Today she ate part of a banana, a yogurt, and an arrowroot cookie. She seems to know eyes, ears, and mouth but of course not in English so when she points we are saying these words to her. At this point, we hear very little from her, aside from a few giggles and her congested breathing she’s pretty quiet. Oh Yeah! We know it’s not a good thing but she sucks her thumb! It is so cute- I had to snap a picture. Darryl gently removes her thumb and she doesn’t seem to mind. Once our facilitator joins us we will be asking if she uses a bottle or soother on a regular basis. Today I took one of the outfits that I brought (the Gap ‘I Love Mom’ one – for those that know) it is size 18-24 months and it was a bit big but it will definitely work. Our daily visits, that are from 1 am to 3 am your time, go by very quickly. It has only been 3 days and we think that we are ready to take her and that she would be fine. She seems to be adjusting quicker than Kaiden did and we don’t know if it is because he was older, or that he is just a different kid. Because she is fitting in so quickly it is going to be a long wait until we get her full time. We talked to one of our facilitators today and because we are in the midst of the Ukrainian Holidays things might be slower. We are hoping to learn our court date early next week – we’ll see. After court, we will have a ten day wait before Kallie will be with us full time.

Kaiden is doing well and really enjoys helping her. At times he gets jealous. It must really be tough having to share your parents!

The city that we are living in has over one million people in it. We live a 35 minute drive from the orphanage. There is no shopping, McDonalds, or Mario’s close by! We have a supermarket close and that’s about it. Our apartment is not near as nice as the one in Kiev but it is bigger. Here in Dnipro we don’t get to hang out with our P.E.I friends. We sure miss them!

That’s all for today! Kaiden is getting out of the bath and we are going to play more UNO before he goes to bed.

Happy New Year to everyone back home!

Love,
Darryl, Jeremy, & Kaiden